Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets?

Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope)

Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat.

Peer Gynt.. famous worldover

To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls.

This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedicated to Trolls and the fairy tales and legends told about them which are very important to Norwegian Culture. It was extremly well presented with a lot of interactive opportunities.

this is apparently a Dr Fred Troll😂

The stories were well told in Norwegian and English - and of course there was every concievable Troll possible.

Trolls come and all shapes and sizes and can live for a very long time, sometimes hundreds of years, sometimes even so long that moss grows upon them and sometimes they even forget how old they actually are!!!

This Troll was very sad because he couldn't rememmber how old he was.... so i sat on his knee🤣🤣

They're not all unpleasant creatures but you really wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of a Troll and some of them are nasty - but most of them are just mischievous and can be dealt with.

Boy Trolls.... I'll stick with Dr Fred.

Some useful ways to deal with a Troll is lead it into sunlight and it'll turn into stone that's why a lot of the mountains are here (obviiusly) and also if you can find out a Trolls real name and to use it with him that will also turn to stone. Useful tips hey?

Girl Trolls... more dangerous than they look...

On a more serious note a lot of the guests and the two on-board astronomers did manage to spot some very faint aurora last night... and the KPI index is good so if the weather clears unlikely tonight - but forecast good for tomorrow we hopefully might get some more Aurora. Of course I was running around the ship trying to find warm clothes and drink wine so I didn't actually spot it by the time I was organized it was over🥴🤔next time I hope🙂

I will have pictures of Aurora but they will be on separate post... hopefully when I'VE actually seen it 🤣

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank. Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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